Week 1 - A New Hope 🌟

Hello tonebuddies! 🎶

A long time ago, in a practice room far, far away... you picked up a piece. You were excited. You cracked it open, worked through the first page, maybe the second — and then something happened. Life struck back. A new piece caught your eye. The fingering felt impossible. The score quietly migrated to the bottom of a stack where it's been sitting ever since. 🎸

This May, we're bringing back the Unfinished Business Challenge — and we're kicking things off on May the 4th, because what better day to summon the Force and finally finish what you started? Every guitarist has an abandoned piece (or three). This is your chance to rescue one from the Sarlacc pit of your music folder and bring it home.

This challenge is open to all levels. Whether you left off at bar 8 or bar 80, whether it's a Bach fugue or a beginner study that got away — if there's a piece waiting for its return, it belongs here.


🌟 The Challenge

Revisit a composition you started but never finished — and this time, see it through. It might be:

  • 🎯 A piece you abandoned because it felt too hard
  • 🎯 Something you got halfway through before a new obsession took over
  • 🎯 A passage or section you never quite nailed
  • 🎯 A piece you learned years ago but never polished or performed

Share the story of why it got left behind and what it means to finally complete it. That's half the magic of this challenge.


📅 Challenge Dates

Start: May 4
End: June 12
Watch Party: June 12


🎥 How to Participate

  1. Pick your piece – Choose the piece (or section) that's been haunting you. The one you've been avoiding. That's the one.
  2. Share your goal – Post in the forum thread and tell us what you're finishing and why it got abandoned in the first place.
  3. Post your progress – Share updates along the way — rough takes, slow-tempo run-throughs, the gnarly passage you finally cracked.
  4. Engage with your fellow rebels – Cheer each other on, leave constructive feedback, and celebrate every piece that makes it across the finish line.

Bonus points: Share a recording of your favorite performance of the piece you're revisiting — the version that first made you fall in love with it.


🎬 Watch Party — June 12

The Watch Party on June 12 will feature recorded submissions from everyone who completed their Unfinished Business. Make sure to submit your final performance videos so we can celebrate your finished piece together! 🎉


💡 Need a Little Help from a Jedi Master?

If the reason you left the piece unfinished is still giving you trouble, tonebase is full of lessons, masterclasses, and courses from world-class guitarists ready to help you through the tricky parts. Search for the piece, the composer, or the technique — chances are, there's a Master ready to help.


May the 4th be with you, tonebuddies. Let's finish what we started. 🎸⚔️

201 replies

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    • Civil law notary with a passion for music
    • Bart_Versteeg
    • Yesterday
    • Reported - view

    OK guys, the game is on. I have two pieces for the Challenge. The first is the Rondo op. 48 nr 6 bij Fernando Sor. I started this piece in the seventies. Time to finish it!

      • BLaflamme
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

        Maybe  is a vampire living across centuries! 🤔

      • BLaflamme
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       That was great Bart, well... you first played that at 5 years old?! 😅

      • Civil law notary with a passion for music
      • Bart_Versteeg
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

      well, I am 64 this year. Somehow my hair doesn’t turn grey.

      • Civil law notary with a passion for music
      • Bart_Versteeg
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       I would be the brother of Brandon Acker than? 😂🤣😂🤣

      • BLaflamme
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       You don't look your age, I would have guessed you were my age at most! 😅

      • Ron.3
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Excellent Bart! Lovely piece for the challenge!

      • joosje
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       great starting point indeed. This is your  kind of music, Bart. Well done. I really enjoy the bright rhythmic playing. 

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Excellent job Bart. I was not familiar with this work by Sor. It is very good. Thanks for sharing.

    • Civil law notary with a passion for music
    • Bart_Versteeg
    • Yesterday
    • Reported - view

    And this is the second piece. It's from the same book (Stunde der Gitarre). Ferdinando Carulli's Alla Polacca. It is very unfinished, I would say it is a rough sketch of the piece. I played it quite well last century, and it's time to learn it again! 

      • Amateur guitarist/lutenist
      • David_Krupka
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Well Bart, it seems you've managed to retain a great deal over all those years! Maybe a few wrinkles need to be ironed out, but both pieces have survived pretty much intact. I guess they were built on a pretty solid foundation in the first place!

      • Eric
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Another great one, and I don't recall ever hearing it before. I haven't played it, but this strikes me as particularly challenging for the right hand.

      • BLaflamme
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Never heard that one, another great submission, can't wait to see what you'll improve over the next weeks. From which book this work is part of?

      • Civil law notary with a passion for music
      • Bart_Versteeg
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       both pieces are from “Stunde der Gitarre” A collection of pieces from the Romantic period.

      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 21 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       wonderful work, Bart. You're playing with such joy and cheerfulness. Really made the music come alive and dancing. I loved it.

      • Ron.3
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Another great piece! This one's new to me. I wish I could recall things I learnt last century - these days I'm lucky if I can remember what I learnt last year!😂

      • Civil law notary with a passion for music
      • Bart_Versteeg
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Well, Ron, I do need the scores…..

      • joosje
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       another nice one. Pretty secure in your hands, already. Nice tempo. Although I prefer Sor as a composer, this piece is quite agreeable too. Stunde der Gitarre part 3 I guess, if you play all the pieces it might be more than 1 hour of music…

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Great work on this one as well, Bart. I remember reading thru this from some nondescript collection of guitar pieces. I always enjoyed it but never got around to actually working it up. I must look up that collection again. As I recall, there was also a polacca by Mertz that was pretty interesting as well. 

      • Civil law notary with a passion for music
      • Bart_Versteeg
      • 9 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

      part 3 indeed. When i finish it i will play it in the GvM meeting in June.

      I wish you succes with your exam!

    • Eric
    • Yesterday
    • Reported - view

    Ponce - Chanson

    • 'Vivo' section before and after practice
    • Entire piece
      • Nijwm_Bwiswmuthiary
      • 21 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       you've practised well and very diligently. The end product is great. I'm listening to it while watching the clouds drift by and I feel this sense of contemplative mood. I'm sure you'll surpass this already great version with even more greater versions throughout the challenge. I already love it.

      • Civil law notary with a passion for music
      • Bart_Versteeg
      • 11 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       what a huge difference! Your practice really paid off! 

      • Ron.3
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Very effective practice Eric - it's really sounding good!

      • joosje
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       obviously very effective practice Eric. Great. This vivo part is tricky, but you make it work so elegantly already. The contrast between the lyrical and rhythmical episodes is so impressive. What a great piece it is. Keep going and take us along on your journey…

      • Retired
      • Jack_Stewart
      • 10 hrs ago
      • Reported - view

       Beautiful, Eric. You have a wonderful sense of this music and present it with great sensitivity. 

Content aside

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